My relation with sport: the evolution in 22 years
If one day, someone had told me that I’d write about this subject, and even more what I’m about to write, I would not have believed it. About a year or two ago, my relationship with sport came down to nothing. I saw myself as a non-sporty person who didn’t have the capacity to do any sport. But where there’s a will, there’s a way !
So you understand better, I let you read the following article.
My childhood
I didn’t practice sports in any club when I was a child. The only activities that could be considered as sport were going to the pool with my friends, but actually it was more about taking a dip and chatting than doing sports, and going cycling. I often went riding with my father and my brother during 2/3 hours and I can tell you that in my region roads are not flat ! Consequently, as a non-sporty young girl I did my best to follow my older brother and my father.
Middle school and PE
Then comes the time of middle school and high school, and PE. I never liked this class, it was always a competition between the sportspeople and the ones who were struggling, like me. For running, I wasn’t that bad but I wasn’t that good either. The teachers took pleasure in marking us, which discredited us depending on our « natural » skills. I always hated competition, each of us have different physical capacities according to our relationship with sport, with our body but I had the feeling that teachers had forgotten about that.
But what really left a mark on me was swimming. It is a dreadful experience for every young girl whose not comfortable with herself. Hung up, shy and insecure, wearing a swimsuit in front of a whole class that you don’t really like was for me particularly traumatizing. It went on in tenth grade. Can you believe that we still had swimming classes in 10th grade? It is even more frightening, boys are more interested in girls and how they look (yes because at this moment of their lives, boys are obsessed with girls!). And some girls start to have wicked tongues when they get into groups. Unfortunately, my confidence and my complexes had not gotten better between middle school and high school. I wanted to hide myself from the others so badly that I asked my doctor to excuse me from every swimming classes.
During my last two years of high school, I did not try to improve my skills in sports. I went backwards to classes and spend most of my time chatting than sweating. Of course, for my high school diploma, I managed to have enough motivation to have the passing mark but nothing more.
My life as a student
Then came the time for further studies. I was delighted that sport classes were not compulsory, but my time spent on physical activity was reduced to nothing. I discovered the joy of having an apartment, a boyfriend, the freedom of eating what I want and obviously, my weight increased. Then at the end of these two years, one day, I started to run. Honestly, at the beginning, I was only running 0,6 mile without stopping but I persevered. Few months later, I was easily running 3,1 miles without stopping and I liked this activity more and more. But cold days, winter, and snow arrived and my motivation tumbled to -10°.
The moment it clicks into place
I was going through a difficult time but one day, I decided to react to feel better physically and morally. Since some time, I was thinking of going to the gym but I was afraid of taking the plunge. I was scared of people staring at me, scared of going there alone, I wanted to do it the right way and I needed someone to motivate me because as people say : “Together we are stronger”.
It’s in February 2017, that along with my best friend (who loved sport as much as I did) we took the plunge and we went to the gym. Each of us had an appointment with a coach to establish a program, and I set myself the goal to go there three times a week. The first month, as I was going out of the gym, I was half-dead but proud. Then, the more I practiced, the more I improved my skills,
I could see results:
I was more energetic at the end of the training,
I lifted heavier weights,
My stamina got better
My confidence got better little by little,
Of course, my body was getting into shape
After several trainings, I quickly forgot my fear of going there alone and of people’s stare. Actually, everybody has something better to do, that is to sweat or to breathe, instead of watching and judging the others.
Doing sports motivated me to keep an eye on my diet, and after 8 months at the gym, I lost 20 pounds.
When sunny days finally came back, I got back to running. I needed to go out to get some fresh air and to diversify my training. I could observe a clear improvement, I came to run 5-6 miles without any problem, my timer and my speed had considerably increased.
Unfortunately, in September of this year, I had to stop my subscription at the gym because I moved out of my town. I didn’t take a subscription at a gym in my new city since I can’t afford it right now (but this is another subject).
Today, I can tell you that I miss practicing in a gym. I didn’t think that I would say that one day. Sport helped me to take confidence, to lose weight (of course), to handle my stress, to make my sleep better and to correct my diet. Doing sports gives my brain, which never stops working, a break and allows me to forget my problems during a few hours.
So to everybody who wants to start sports but always ends up procrastinating, despite all the good reasons you have, if I did it, anybody can do it so GET MOVING!
